immediate pressures to worth in central russia injuring over twelve hundred people go first hand accounts in our special report coming up in a few seconds. tit for tat currency clashes in the euro zone's plight occupy the hearts and minds of financial decision makers meeting in moscow. president obama's candidate for defense secretary is stalled by republican senators who say they don't know enough about the man heading for the pentagon.

and from the new center here in moscow this is with the online on screen twenty four hours a day. picture this is eight fifty one in the morning in a mid-sized city east of the urals when the sky is lit up by the fiery path of a meteorite about to smash into its final resting place here on earth in the middle of russia one eyewitness was the canadian hockey player michael garnett who gave r.t. a firsthand account of the dramatic arrival. speak bright like shining across the sky you know blinding brighter than the sun and then it was followed by a huge. explosion on board a minute or so later that broke last very same. fixtures were swaying back and forth. point when looked out the window when i saw this giant streak going across

the sky like the tail of the cloud of what what had just happened. at that point i knew it was something that came from the sky immediately called one of my teammates who lives in my building and. you know i couldn't get through to him by phone and work so i was a little bit scared at the point the meteor exploded in the earth's atmosphere resulting in multiple fragments falling near populated areas and surprisingly the incident triggered huge panic among people in the affected region it's not easy now reports well this was right about the time when most people were already at work the children were in schools and in kindergartens and all of the sudden this extremely bright flash of light one man told me that it actually hurts even looking at it many people managed to actually film what was going on many of these videos are now online here's one actually picturing the moment of one of the explosions.

so the sounds of broken glass and all these alarms going off can be clearly heard in all this it's really like a scene from a movie but it's real and many were shocked and emphatic in specially in the first few hours calling each other to find out what's happening and so many rumors from a jet down to a satellite and even to the start of the end of the world and actually artie's documentary team happened to be in the affected area writes what all this was happening here's how they described it. the feeling was like there are three shattering we thought a military jets may have crashed or that it was some manmade disaster it was a relief to find out it was a natural phenomenon. i was told that a plane crashed right into our building then we were told that a wall has been partly dislodged and metal structures inside were banned by the blast wave it was very scary over twelve hundred people were injured including over

two hundred children but thankfully these are minor injuries and related mostly due to all this glass flying around caused by these explosions. initial speculation as to the causes of the flashes in the sky went as far as suggesting a nuclear disaster may be to blame well i discussed without his lindsay france why exactly people did fear the worst. if you look at the area and its history you begin to understand why people are actually expressing relief at the fact that this was a rock falling from the sky and not a nuclear disaster there are seven nuclear fuel plants in that area in fact during soviet times it was sort of a nuclear playground for scientists where a lot of things were tested and nuclear experiments were done and there were actually two manmade nuclear disasters there one in the fifty's and one in the sixty's so when you're driving to work or picking up your daycare and you see a huge bright flash and you hear an impact like this imagine what you think if you live there not exactly the place you think. your should be total getting but of

course interesting enough this region has experienced this sort of thing before yes it seems to be a magnet it's such a mystery to a layman like us who have no idea why something like the media would be so very attracted to eastern russia to siberia and even to southern russia one of the most famous meteorites ever to hit in one thousand eight the famous tom goes to meteor that they hit out in the very far east it cleared two thousand square kilometers of forest land it's shockingly huge and less than twenty years later another another meteor one nine hundred forty seven another and then another ten years ago in siberia these were huge events. one of the children says about she'd been killed by a meteorite their very very slim and fact it's extremely rare to hear of anything there has been one case of a woman being injured by a meteorite falling through her house this happened in the u.s.

state of alabama in the one nine hundred fifty s. she was napping it's all right through the roof hit her on the arm. and we've been who's the target liberalism for these two q. and a foundation explain to me only one of the potential danger posed shouldn't be underestimated. for an object that's that size and it's estimated i think it eight to ten tons and moving on the order of somewhere near twenty kilometers or thirty kilometers per second that's a lot of energy and so when that thing strikes the ground you're talking about a force not unlike a significant explosion so all of the kind of damage as you can think of from a huge explosion is the precise of the kind of damage that could have happened had it hit struck in the middle of a city or any kind of populated area but there are telescopes and networks operated by nasa in the u.s. and what's cosmos and russia and the european space agency others that are out there trying to detect and track asteroids but honestly there's

a lot of there's hundreds of thousands and their biggest focus is on the really large ones ones that are hundreds of meters in diameter or kilometers in diameter that could potentially you know due to the os what happened to the dinosaurs. well an asteroid has just made a record close approach to earth posting over the pacific ocean and it's even scientists in people all over the world watch with extreme interest many fearing it wouldn't miss our planet following the meteor strike in russia will cross from the school of earth and space exploration explain to me what links the two. maybe there is an asteroids are common many of them come from the outer part of our solar system perturbations from the planet jupiter and other planets there's a huge. store of comets asteroids out outside the orbits of jupiter and outside in fact the outer solar system some of them periodically get disturbed by the gravity of the inner planets and get sent in word some of them are big balls of ice and become comets others are big balls of rock and the impact on

mars and the earth and the moon and. what's fascinating is actually you could if you can collect some of this material some of it is primordial if we actually detective and we can we can get it right after it falls we can actually measure material that hasn't been processed since the solar system formed four to have billion years ago so for scientists it's a fascinating event and i'm happy that people weren't killed but about it some of that material can be recovered it will be incredibly interesting and important for scientists but not a token we have live updates on the media strike including how some enterprising locals are already cashing in some are trying to sell parts of the crash meter online the most expensive being offered for ten thousand dollars but of course even if someone is willing to defend their pocket for this there's no way to verify whether you're buying a piece of mitterrand or just a rusty old stone but jokes aside scientists say that it was the largest recorded object to strike the earth in about

a century its estimated weight was forty tons when it approached the planet before breaking up into smaller pieces and experts also say that when it exploded the media released a huge amount of energy making the blast even more powerful than the nuclear weapon tested by north korea just days ago and specialise occur in examining a crater with a width of six meters where a piece of the meteor supposedly crashed and another piece opposed to fell into a lake creating this hole in the ice as you can see now. for. other news now a potential currency war in the european debt crisis is dominating a meeting of finance chiefs from some of the world's biggest economies here in moscow for russia the gathering is seen as a launch pad for the g twenty summit later this year. has been following

discussions in the kremlin. a lot of conflicting statements have been said about this talk of the impending looming currency war which has led some folks some market watchers to be quite confused as to what we'll actually see coming out of this g. twenty talks here in moscow now at the center of the whole controversy of crisis is japan due to its aggressive monetary and fiscal policies it has seen a weakening of the and so what this has resulted in this essentially a clash between the countries very little consensus we did hear from a russian finance minister. who has said that this is certainly an important issue that of currencies that is very much on the table but at the very same time we've seen other world leaders come up and say that you know what currency wars aren't really a threat they're trying to calm down the market to some have even questioned whether japan's actions constitute as a manipulation of the currency basically when a country is in the dire fiscal situation such as of course as we all know many

countries are today like japan for instance is one option that a country house is to devalue its currency is it making something like this a twenty dollar bill worth less you can do that by a variety of means for example me printing cash because why would you want to do that when your currency is worth less your manufactured goods are cheaper on the market and that gives you a temporary boost in the economy which could be pretty critical in tough times like this now what we've actually seen the fear here is that when a country does that your trading partner strike back they say hey we're going to lower the value of our currency and that sets off a currency war such as the one that we saw in the one nine hundred thirty s. which has led to the great depression now japan insists that it is simply trying to stimulate as kwame it's not doing anything to prompt a full scale currency war of course no country here wants to see that but the reason that we're seeing so much disagreement and so little consensus among the countries is that you know what for example the united states its policy isn't all

that. friends the fed in the us has been printing money like crazy so these developed countries don't really see any incentive in isolating japan in trying to really squeeze down on this currency manipulation issue because they don't want to mess around with their economies essentially said that is really the crux of the issue and auntie's business desk has also been closely watching the meeting of the g twenty finance heads here in moscow stay with altie for the extensive coverage a little later this hour and still to come for you this libya prepares to mark the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled gadhafi preparations includes setting up roadblocks across the country and nato forces gathering in the capital as the number of those protesting against the new government increases. still to come we report on how a new biometric scan system developed for the u.s. military could put an end to previously that more official break.

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interview intriguing story to tell you. been trying. to find out more visit or a big t.v. dog called. basis based on. you know i care read the. play. rock music. concert the show today how to sing we just had a studio upgrade put them on just to go to the to debate which is a bit silly devoted to you know just saying. would take mass shootings from the richest sandy hook school to someone tell them it's a stop the bloodshed on this one tom stupid thing coming coming is there a concept of the scheme plus. we are facing

a lot of problems. because no one thought to drink no good school. no meds when you park. your local what's not enough well there's a law in the local needs you might want to see l.n.g. most will be used. and. give them done for up artist i was fired about how most fights. fights. fights are right. a loaf.

news continues here in r.t. in the u.s. senate republicans have stalled an attempt by the white house to make chuck hagel the secretary of defense he fell two votes short as senators decided to win some time to find out more about him what he's going to check on explains. those who blocked the vote on chuck hagel nomination this thursday know very well that he will eventually be confirmed as defense secretary there are enough votes in the senate to confirm him but the stalling of the vote together with the humiliating treatment that the senators gave chuck hagel two weeks ago at his confirmation hearing this whole process is seen as a message all by itself those lawmakers showed that they could crush anyone who would allow themselves to dissent from washington's core foreign policy beliefs chuck hagel remarks at the confirmation hearing disappointed even his supporters during the hearing which to many seemed like an inclination mr hay go had to

backtrack on many of the statements he had made before including that war with iran should not be an option including his criticism of israel's actions and some other foreign policy views that he had expressed as a senator so throughout that long an exhausting hearing mr haygood kept apologizing for much of the previous statements he had to take from previous positions he had taken and he bent backwards to show how quote unquote mainstream his views are in the senator's kept accusing him of not being again quote unquote mainstream enough to get the job chuck hagel swore to defend basically all of washington's foreign policy orthodoxies his confirmation process has been humiliating in many ways than it demonstrated the state of u.s. foreign policy of policy basically intolerant of an ill targeted vision alternative claud having said all that the president's decision to nominate chuck hagel of course knowing the position chuck hagel had taken before was also seen as a message president obama had said previously that there is too much of your talk

going on and maybe by nominating chuck hagel he wanted to play down because too many people here in washington are too eager to talk war just during the confirmation hearing the word war was mentioned one hundred twenty times the word iran one hundred eight times by comparison of ghana's than the war that the u.s. is fighting right now just twenty six mentions of course those are just words but they may very well show how eager many many in washington are to discuss new wars without even having finished the old ones. help is at hand for british m.p.'s who are stressed or depressed online we've got the story of why politicians will soon be getting free mental health treatment without even having to leave westminster. top secret documents surfaces revealing his plans for military involvement in mali called we lift the lid on the plans of the world's most feared terror network.

libya is braced for fresh unrest the second anniversary of the revolution that toppled gadhafi is being held under the threat of violence security is tight and foreigners are leaving almes the first protests against the current government are expected in benghazi the birthplace of the revolution political analyst about him told me a little earlier where libya stands two years after the uprising and the what we have seen over the last two years in libya is that this integration of a new form of central control paving the way for the fragmentation of the country into three states at the same time there is rampant lawlessness in the country there is an outgrowth of fundamentalism of the chrome on the inside that has spilled over and somali as we have seen over the last couple of months a little bit. more than two months and at the same time we have this but.

not strife breaking out between the front militias and the country so yes a lot has changed but not for the better. time now for some other international news in our world update this hour in south africa has let it super star oscar pistorius has been formally charged with the murder of his girlfriend the man known as the blade runner will be held in custody until court hearings begin on tuesday. starting camp was shot dead at the paralympians house on thursday in the suburbs of bittorrent. thousands of antigovernment protesters attacked a major highway in the bahraini capital manama that's a day after a sixteen year old protester and a police officer died during demonstrations marking the second anniversary of the country's uprising two years ago protests in the country began to demand more freedoms and rights of the shia majority in a nation run by sunni. and also. activists in syria

say at least one hundred fifty rebels and government soldiers have been killed in the last two days of heavy fighting in the northern city of aleppo and the attacks began on wednesday as rebels hit the city's civilian airport and a nearby military airfield control over the international airport will provide a strategic advantage against president assad's forces the conflict in syria has lasted for almost two years now with the death toll already over sixty thousand. the british government's program of cuts has resulted in a drastic drop in the number of police officers to the lowest level in over a decade the radical reform package is already sparked many security questions. chance to ask m.p.'s on both sides of the argument if the fears are reasonable. in the number of police officers up to the lowest levels for eleven years is the impact of a twenty percent cut and whitehall funding to police budgets takes effect which is think more about these. joined by conservative m.p. . and labor m.p.

thank you very much to both of you for joining us jim i'm going to start with the a lot of the police officers that we were speaking with we've got is a bit of. form but at the same time they're seeing the number of police. and police . i mean it's quite confusing time i think for police to what's being expected. i understand that there may be slight consolation but given the battering the reputation of the police is hard over recent months the government had to take steps to shore up the reputation and terms of morale. of the police service. in my part of east london we've seen over one hundred fifty uniform stuff go in the past two years productions in crime which we've seen year on year. reverse and for the past two years has been an increase in crime last year of nine percent saw as some parts of the country the cuts are being imposed are affecting

the safety of people on the streets. or the lowest level of police now for eleven years. so i may not know the the police are having to take their share of the of the spending reductions along with the rest of the public sector to get the deficit under control and what we're actually seeing is it's not about police numbers it's what you do with the police or innovative ways of maintaining a police presence on the streets and jim a home for to have a increase in crime in his constituency but the facts are that across the country on average last year crime fell by eight percent and in fact it fell in my force in leicestershire by eight percent as well so we are seeing a overall reduction in crime across the country at the same time we're cutting police numbers but they're doing innovative things like sharing back office services because the forces. to save money and keep those police out on the streets where people want to be sort of in offices filling in paperwork and that with red tape is not just the police integrity it's the public perception of the police integrity and the reforms will help to improve the public perception of prison. right thank you very very much for joining us you can join in our debate online at

r.t. dot com we've also been on twitter a lot of the public have been getting involved in this debate as well as members of the police force that hash tag police reform to join in the debate about the latest police reforms. the u.s. is funneling money into tracking systems that are threatening to make the very concept to privacy a thing of the past it could mean people's every move being used against them to keep them under surveillance. looks at the future being watched. the information age was an era nearly everybody in braced by today's surveillance age experts say is a reality oh most no one can escape we are five years away in new york from zero privacy from every new yorker being tracked and catalogued and watched and that information being saved for pretty much an indeterminate period of private investigator steve rom bomb believes america is being landscaped into an eis wide

open society through the advancing market of biometrics technology that uses physiological and behavioral recognition to identify people. a system touted as a national security necessity is being used to build a database where the biometric identity of millions of americans be gathered and stored when you look at crying when you look at terrorism what we're really focusing on is the individual and so if you are interested in reducing crime or reducing terrorism you do have to focus on the individual and biometrics is a way. of connecting the person with a measurement recognition of unwanted visitors face recognition and iris scanning are the current tools of the trade however scientists are reportedly developing new technology aimed at identifying anyone from much greater distances if researchers are successful the defense department may eventually be able to detect individuals

by your shape heartbeat walking patterns and possibly even older long range fingerprint and iris scanning are reportedly also being explored for the u.s. tool box of tracking are there reasons to have such security devices sure. do i think it's american do i think it's appropriate that somebody can press a button and determine everywhere i've been everything i've done ever. no it's role and i think that we're entitled to privacy. author and journalist a.j. jacobs recently spent three months documenting every second of his life with a small camera and like a bluetooth it's remarkable it holds ten hours of video esquire magazine editor at large subscribed to self surveillance for an article about life log yet he believes the market of high tech cameras and consumer biometric applications will soon make little brother and equally big concern and i think that we are. going to have

a private moment in the future and i always tell people listen if you want to have an extramarital affair you better have it right now because you're going to be able to have them five years because everything will be tracked your husband or wife will be able to know exactly where you are at all times as companies like apple move her words fingerprint readers and facial recognition insiders say that consumer electronics will generate an entirely new source of revenue for the biometric industry and industry estimated to bank more than nine billion dollars globally this year however the top cash cow is expected to remain government spending on security living in the past five years the department of defense has shelled out an estimated three billion dollars on biometric programs. hard to believe that just ten years ago the concept of facial recognition biometrics

surveillance and domestic drones was limited to science fiction movies like minority report. burning up or not. i'll be met with a news team with more free in about half an hour from now in the meantime we have the business with katie and he she is in the studio with us we've been reporting of course about the g twenty heads all meeting near moscow today so a big day for the city and the country but obviously other things happening in the world of business indeed there is and i think it's. the russian stock market has issued an i.p.o. initial public offering and it's been a bit of a disappointment to them explain why and give you all the market reaction as well that's all coming up in the business bulletin off of the broncos with me thanks so much. some countries want oil but that's kid stuff who needs oil when you can secure the

world's largest supply of trucker darrow so-to located exclusively in sweden and meeting sweden for absolutely no logical reason is a possible you say well supreme commander of the swedish armed forces general sphere guru and son must have watched red dawn too many times because he thinks the russians are a common general durance and declared that if invaded by russia sweden wouldn't be able to last a week against the onslaught therefore sweden must immediately join nato he said that currently it is not quite possible to invade sweden but due to the two thousand and eight war with georgia it is possible for russia to somehow push through established european borders bring their forces up to sweden's gates putting the generals country in danger but guess what according to your own council of the european union georgia started the war so by that logic if the two thousand and one with georgia is the example of the future then don't kill russian peacekeeping troops and you'll have nothing to worry about.